Light on resources and heavy on challenges – even before Covid-19 – the cultural sector can nonetheless take small, regular actions to support a green and inclusive recovery from the pandemic. Simon Thompson proposes a way forward.
Despite the blow the lockdown has dealt to its plans, dreams, ambitions and finances, Tomorrow’s Warriors are managing to think positively about the future. Janine Irons explains how.
Delivering arts and health services digitally can extend access for some, but others are excluded. Nesta Lloyd-Jones looks at the positive outcomes and future challenges brought about by the lockdown.
Oliver Dowden claims to know that “theatres must be full to make money” but his five-stage plan to see performing arts venues reopen has no money attached.
A 9-point checklist will guide the safe reopening of museums and galleries, but visitors may still stay away if the services and facilities they usually enjoy are not available.
Although museums and galleries in England and Scotland can prepare to reopen, the performing arts remain in lockdown and fears grow for the future of venue-based organisations.
Creating a National Arts Force of freelance and gig economy workers to work in schools, care homes and communities is among recommendations to the Scottish Government for the preservation of jobs and recovery in the creative sector.
The Government is encouraging the sector to welcome the public back, but museum directors warn that “permission to reopen does not resolve the huge issues currently facing the sector”.
Given where we now find ourselves, we have few choices but to pool resources and develop new economic and business structures within which the arts will be able to thrive in the future. Anne Bonnar and Hilary Keenlyside propose some fundamental building blocks.
Communicating re-opening will be much, much harder than closure, says Kate Fielding-Cox, who proposes four key principles that every venue should bear in mind when preparing to welcome the public back.
“Two pigeons in the foyer, a baby seagull falling off the roof and the lager kegs exploding in the heat”: Elspeth McBain tells why she was tempted to just get a straw and forget about her venue’s problems for a while…
“Radical, representative reinvention” is the only moral choice for the sector now, says Richard Watts, who examines what’s locking us in – and what might help the sector break free from its unfair, unequal and excluding norms.
Two-thirds of organisations and almost three quarters of individuals who applied to Arts Council England for emergency funds were successful, but 4,000 applicants were left disappointed.
Lockdown is transforming the way music teachers deliver instrument tuition now and in the future, with 87% currently adapting their lessons for delivery online.
Outdoor Arts producers and artists are experienced at turning the most unpromising setting into a performance space, and their back-catalogue of shows is tailored for the outdoor. Could they be the first to woo back audiences in a socially distanced world? Angus MacKechnie looks ahead.
Familiar voices may be muted this year, but some have found new ways to communicate with their audiences, and to reach new ones. Michael Eades asks some fundamental questions about the future for festivals.
As we move from the immediate crisis towards new ones, we need atypical thinkers, agile doers and creative problem-solvers who thrive in unknowns, says Kai Syng Tan. She and Tom Northey explore examples of ‘Artful Leadership’.
Scotland appears to be the first country in the UK to make a direct Government loan to ensure a cultural organisation can survive the current financial crisis.
